By Professor Raanan Gillon<\/p>\n
In 1983 I started a one week CPD course in medical ethics to\u00a0 introduce doctors to several different\u00a0 approaches to ethics (currently deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, \u2018the four principles approach\u2019). The course considers a variety of problems in medical ethics including end of life issues, double effect, acts and omissions, killing vs allowing to die, paternalism versus respect for autonomy, truth-telling in medical practice, a session on \u2018practical aspects of medical ethics\u2019,\u00a0 fair distribution of resources, the relation of ethics and law,\u00a0 human rights and medical ethics. A half-day session is aimed at helping participants to understand opposing perspectives by means of an exercise in developing arguments explicitly opposing participants\u2019 own viewpoints concerning cases that they have found troubling. Overall satisfaction of previous participants has always (over the last 34 years!)\u00a0 been at an average level of 9+ on a ten-point scale so\u00a0 I am confident that doctors who come on the course do find it very worthwhile.<\/p>\n
Comments from participants have included \u201cThe best post-graduate experience of my career\u201d and \u201cA first class course to put your ethical thinking into perspective and relate [it] to present day healthcare\u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n
The course is in English and UK doctors are the main attenders but we usually have some international visitors whose perspectives add value to the experience,\u00a0 as do the various others who come- among them nurses clinical ethics committee members, medical ethicists, health managers and even the occasional vet.<\/p>\n